Seven Taiwanese films are among more than 300 films from 75 countries to be screened at this year’s Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, which opened yesterday.
Taiwanese films are performing better each year at international film festivals and are also doing well in the film trade, said Chu Wen-ching (朱文清), head of the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.
Chu said his bureau has set up a Taiwan pavilion at the festival’s Asian Film Market, where 16 Taiwanese companies are expected to try to sell their films. The Asian Film Market deals with a variety of businesses in the field, from sales of copyrights, investment and production to post-production.
The bureau has also organized a Taiwan Night for Monday that is to be attended by filmmakers, actors and actresses, including Taiwanese-French actress Sandrine Pinna (張榕容) and Taiwanese model and actress Sonia Sui (隋棠).
The seven Taiwanese films to be showcased include Touch of the Light (逆光飛翔) by Chang Rong-ji (張榮吉) and Together (甜‧秘密) by Hsu Chao-jen (許肇任). Both films have been nominated for an award in the festival’s New Currents competition.
Touch of the Light, which stars Pinna, is about a girl who dreams of becoming a dancer and develops a friendship with a blind musician, while Together is about a high-school boy’s observation of people around him who are bothered by love.
Other films include Go Grand-riders (不老騎士), a feature-length documentary by Hua Tien-hau (華天灝) that tells the story of a motorcycle journey around Taiwan by 17 old men, and short film Daily Life (過站) by Chang Chia-yun (張家筠), about a warm day shared by a daughter and mother. Both of these films have been nominated in the festival’s Wide Angle competition.
Meanwhile, 10+10 by Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), a collection of 20 five-minute shorts by 20 directors on what they see as the uniqueness of Taiwan, has been selected to be screened in the Window on Asian Cinema section.
Also to be shown in this section are GF*BF (女朋友。男朋友) by Yang Ya-che about the love and friendship between three youngsters who joined the student movements in Taiwan in the 1980s, and a Taiwan-Myanmar co-production titled Poor Folk (窮人‧榴槤‧麻藥‧偷渡客) by Burmese director Midi Z (趙德胤), which depicts the lives of illegal immigrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand.
The 10-day festival is scheduled to run through Oct. 13. It opened last night with the world premiere of Hong Kong thriller Cold War which stars screen veterans Aaron Kwok (郭富城) and Tony Leung Ka-fai (梁家輝).
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all